1. Field of the Invention
The invention is directed to computing devices for connection to a television, more specifically, the invention is directed to computing devices for streaming media to a television.
2. Background of the Invention
Streaming or media streaming is a technique for transferring data so that data can be processed as a steady and continuous stream. Streaming technologies are becoming increasingly important with the growth of the Internet because most users do not have a sufficiently fast access to download large multimedia files quickly. With streaming, the client browser or plug-in can display the data before the entire file has been transmitted.
For streaming to work, the client side receiving the data must be able to collect the data and send the data as a steady stream to the application that is processing the data and convert it to sound or pictures. This means that if the streaming client receives the data more quickly than required, it needs to save the excess data in a buffer. If the data doesn't come quickly enough, however, the presentation of the data will not be smooth.
Media is usually streamed from prerecorded files but can also be distributed as part of a live broadcast feed. In a live broadcast, the video signal is converted into a compressed digital signal and transmitted from a web server as multicast, sending a single file to multiple users at the same time.
Streaming media is transmitted by a server application and received and displayed in real-time by a client application called a media player. A media player can be either an integral part of a browser, a plug-in, a separate program, or a dedicated device. Furthermore, it is becoming more popular to connect devices to televisions (TVs) that are capable of displaying streaming media on the TV.
As televisions (TVs) become thinner, TV owners are becoming increasingly likely to want to forgo or hide any peripheral devices (e.g. cable boxes, and DVD or Blu-ray players). Following this trend, streaming media devices, such as the Roku or Apple TV, have become increasingly smaller. The reduction in size and power consumption of such computing devices enables their design, as a pluggable computing device, by integrating the computing device with a power supply. The reduction in size and integration with a power supply creates heat dissipations problems that are usually addressed by either inclusion of a fan or by a heat sink. However, both solutions have significant disadvantages. In the case of a fan, the disadvantages include additional noise, reduction in reliability, and additional power consumption. In the case of a heat sink, the disadvantages include, increases in cost and size. The reduction in the size of the computing devices also limits the room for adequate sized antenna for RF or other wireless connectivity.